Spanish football clubs' tax debt to fall below 200m euros – league president

Spain’s professional football clubs will bring their total debt with the country’s tax authorities to below 200 million euros ($290 million) by the end of the season, league president Javier Tebas said Wednesday. Spain’s first and second division football clubs owed 317 million euros in September at the start of the season, down from a high of 650 million euros in 2013. With clubs increasingly falling on hard times after overspending, a commission was set up at the start of 2013 by the league and the government’s National Sports Council (CSD) to resolve the crisis, and controls were put in place including the power to prevent the signing of players.